Tuesday, May 5, 2009

Lit Circle #4 p. 3

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Today in I, Robot group 1 we discussed for a long time what the flaws of the different robots in the different chapters were. We decided that the flaws become bigger and more recognizable as the book progresses. Robbie was the least flawed and his weakness was Gloria's stories. Then the robot who is most like a human is the most flawed because he is still a robot but he thinks he is perfect and humans arent even though they created him.

1984 Group 2 - Today we were missing Jon Karr, who we know wants to ban the book. Therefore we tried to determine what the book has to offer to allow it to be approved. We felt that if one can understand the psycological strains that happen in this book then one can better understand one's own mind and the power it holds over reality. We then tried to look up some actually incidences of 1984 being banned, but we could mainly just find why it was banned. We spent most the Lit. Circle trying to figure out how to argue with Jon well enough so that he would the value in our posistion and would be willing to stay with us and not ban the book. I guess that's the just of it.

Today during our learning circle our group discussed the last chapter of the book and what to do during our presentation. We talked about some of the important passages that we found. Some highlights are the quotes by Susan Calvin about society being ruled by robots and how this is better for humanity. Our group discussed why the last chapter of the book might be called “The Inevitable Conflict.” We decided that this was because robotic rule had become inevitable. As a result, we discussed why this robotic controlled society was distopian. It was concluded that because humanity could not choose its own course that it was not utopian. The final question we discussed was at what point did the robots become “conscious.” Our group decided that it was the moment that people no longer just saw a bunch of gears and wires, but mentally considered them living. After that, our group discussed what to do during our presentation. We broke it up into 5 parts: an introduction, a summary of the story including any controversial content, a translation of the story and how it fits with 9th grade curriculum, an explanation of why any controversial parts are acceptable, and a conclusion. As our leader for today’s discussion, I feel we made great progress in understanding the book and figuring out what to do for our project.

Little Brother, Jillian G. & Aaron F.(!!SPOILER ALERT!!))The meaningfull passages consisted of things along the lines of:"My name is Marcus Yallow. I was tortured by my country, but I still love it here. I'm seventeen years old. I want to grow up in a free country. I want to live in a free country."And several similar quotations from the same chapter.Additionally we pulled several shorter quotes along the lines of "I didn't vote for them" and "The Bill of Rights isn't supposed t be something you can pick and choose from" and sever other quotations refering t the constitution.

In working on the project today we found several statistic sources on teen drinking and teen pregnancy.

In 1984 Group 1, we discussed how we think the book may end. We talked about how there is a large amount of foreshadowing going on. All of us agreed that we think O'Brien will be a major part of the ending. Also, many of the motifs that we discussed in class were evident as we read on. For example, there are many examples of oppresion and lust as we near the end of the book. Our group also touched base on our individual assignments for the final presentation.

Today, in our discussion, we talked mostly about the end of I Am the Cheese. We first talked about how the song that is sung throughout the entire book, connects with the title. Obviously, the title is what it is because Paul feels alone just like "the cheese" in the last verse of "The Farmer in the Dell". Also, the ending is very vague and left us all with seemingly endless questions, which, I am sure was what the author wanted to do. So, we came up with different ideas of how the two parts of the book, the interrogation of Paul and his bike ride to Rutterburg, come together and create a story that actually makes sense. We had lots of different thoughts. Most had the same general ideas, Paul's father not really being dead and Dr. Dupont actually being with the group that is trying to capture Paul's father. However, we never really came to completely liable idea. At the end, we discussed our final project, tagging more of the book that could be questionable. We didn't do that for very long, because of the amount of time we took discussing the book. Our group plans to discuss this more in the next Lit. Circle.

Today in 1984 group 3 we discussed how we thought we could represent this book as appropriate for our grade level. We also discussed our views about the literary value of this book. We went deeper into why you would assign this book and why it would be good for us to read. Another thing we talked about was what this book means in our world today and how we can see what was foreshadowed of a time that has come and gone. We talked about meaningful passages and what we are doing for our presentation.